Date: 26/02
City: Nazca , Peru
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 35440
Street: N/A
Weather: cloudy/warm

Carlos picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the airport. Here we hopped on the small air plane. People suggested taking some sea sickness tablets, we were not sure why, but we followed the suggestion and took some.

After take off it took only a couple of minutes before we saw the first Nazca figurine, first a tight left turn, then trowing the plane around and a tight right turn. I suddenly got the idea why people suggested taking sea sickness tablets… There are huge triangles, nobody knows really why the figurines and lines were created.

And here is a picture of the Hummingbird and the astronout

Below you can see the tower from where we had a look yesterday at the figurines, you can see the Pan American Highway and in the right corner the hands and in the middle the tree.

There are not only the figurines to see, there are also multiple other lines which are the result of vehicles driving around before the site was declared a national monument and some lines which point a certain direction. All that sometimes makes it hard to see the figurines – as you can see below, in middle left side is the spider.

After a short time we returned to the airport, here is a picture of the captain who brought us back in one piece 🙂

In the afternoon we explored Nazca for a bit

We saw black corn and a car used to climb the second highest sand dune in the world, the 3800m high Cerro Blanco. No, we had enough adventure for the day and gave that a miss.

Here is a picture of Cerro Blanco, it is the white mountain in the middle.

Strolling through the city we also found a replacement for Sigrid’s Crocs which were worn through. So no wet feet for her anymore when the streets are wet 😀

Date: 27/02 – 03/03
City: Nazca , Peru
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 35440
Street: N/A
Weather: cloudy/warm

In the morning we joined a guy who had a tour booked for two, but his friend didn’t feel well and couldn’t come. So we visited the Nazca underground Aqueducts (named Puquios) which are still functioning today. They survived the 1996 earthquake that nearly destroyed the whole city of Nazca. Below are pictures of a bit of open channel aqueduct and one of the entrances, which were used for getting water, cleaning the Aqueducts and for spiritual celebrations.

There are around 36 of these undergrounds aqueducts, which bring the water from the mountain to the arid desert and allowed the Nazcas to life here. Then we had a look at the Nazca ruins, which were build 2000 years ago. The ruins are still in the process of being excavated and rebuild, so there was not too much to see, but on the right picture you can see the difference in the building style. The bit rough part was done by the Nazcas, the front part was built by the Incas a couple of hundred years later.

When we returned Bjoern had developed a fever and the next couple of days were needed to recover from an infection. To entertain us there was a folklore festival going on, so there were some street parades showing the different costumes from different countries, here are some pictures.

The streets around the hotel were in the process of being redone so it looked a bit sandy around, but the hotel itself was nice.

When Bjoern had recovered with the help of a local doctor and some antibiotics we explored the city again. We had a look at the central plaza and took a couple of pictures of the art around.

 

 

The next evening we went to a folklore festival to see the Russian and the Brazil performances.

At night we once more sampled the Pisco sour on the central plaza, there was a very nice Purina lady making them. To be honest, I could get used to that stuff J

We just had to try out if it is different in Nazca to how it was in Pisco 😉

In the evening we saw the Southern Cross the first time since nearly a year – no that has nothing to do with the Pisco –  It was the first night with a clear sky since we are back in the southern hemisphere. We stayed a day longer to see the Nazca Mummies. They are around 2000 years old and you can still see the skin on some. There was a also a small room with some mummies behind glass, also showing their belongings.

Some of the fabrics didn’t look 2000 years old, more like they were just recently produced.

Outside were the open graves, where the mummies and their hair were still preserved by the dryness of the desert, some of them had long raster locks (picture on the right).

We did the tour with Carlos; he had heaps of information for us about traveling in Peru. We really enjoyed his stories and his tips for us.

At night we went to the final folk festival evening, today the winner would be announced. The winner was Russia and I think it was not a big surprise after seeing their performance. After the Ceremonies were still some performances from different countries. Some were caring a huge amounts of bottles on their head while dancing, others were performing some acrobatics and some were portraying a fight between two tribes.

Tomorrow we will start to ride direction Machu Picchu.